By Katherine Landergan, Town Correspondent

EdX, a not-for-profit initiative that offers online classes at no charge, has announced that it will add the first college in India to its consortium.

According to a statement released by edX, The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay will work with edX, a platform launched by Harvard and MIT in 2012, to fill a specific need in India: training engineering teachers.

There are approximately 5,000 engineering colleges in India, with more than 1.25 million students enrolled at the colleges, the statement said. By joining edX, IIT Bombay aims to “increase the number of qualified and experienced engineering educators in India and beyond.”

EdX offers massive open online courses, or MOOCs, which are free online classes that enroll thousands of students all around the world. EdX’s students reside in 192 countries, with India attracting the most students after the United States.

According to the statement, the addition of IIT Bombay will bring the total number of schools participating in edX to 28. In May, edX announced that 15 colleges and universities, including many from Asia and Europe, were joining the initiative.

"At edX, our global community continues to grow at the student and institutional levels," Anant Agarwal, president of edX, said in the statement. "India is an important market for us and is home to the largest population of edX learners outside of the United States. We are pleased that IIT Bombay has joined our distinguished group of xConsortium members, which increases global access to a world-class education and adds a rich variety of new courses to edX's offerings."

Katherine Landergan can be reached at klandergan@globe.com. For campus news updates, follow her on Twitter @klandergan.

Looking for more coverage of area colleges and universities? Go to our Your Campus pages.

After two decades of sifting through thousands of resumes and hiring new people, Mark O'Toole, from HB Agency, created a slide show to explain why new college graduates were not offered jobs.

Those who did not get the job were sometimes just not the right fit. Other times, they were trumped by a more impressive candidate or victim to some other random event mostly out of their control.

Too many had the background to make the cut or at least garner a second interview. But disastrous interviewing skills brought you down.

If you're a recent graduate or about to graduate, hopefully these tips will help you land that dream job. You might also want to check out our list of what college majors have the highest unemployment rates.

The following is a release from the Middlesex District Attorney. For full coverage of today's developments, including federal charges against Tsarnaev, go to boston.com.

WOBURN – Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been indicted by a Middlesex Grand Jury on more than a dozen criminal charges including murder for the shooting death of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan announced today.

Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge, was indicted on charges of murder, attempted armed robbery, armed assault with intent to murder (four counts), assault with a dangerous weapon (four counts), kidnapping, armed robbery, unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a large capacity feeding device, and possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number.

“Officer Collier was a dedicated officer who was beloved by the MIT community and we are all deeply affected by his loss,” District Attorney Ryan said. “Today’s indictment is about recognizing the sacrifice of Officer Collier and working toward providing some solace for his family. It is also about recognizing the important work of the police in Middlesex County. They put themselves in harms way every day and this office will fully prosecute anyone who kills or attempts to kill a police officer in this county. I would like to commend the work of the Massachusetts State Police, MIT Police, Cambridge Police, Watertown Police, and MBTA Transit Police and the many other agencies that have collaborated with our office on this investigation. I’d also like to recognize our US Attorney and federal partners, with whom we will work closely as we prosecute this defendant for the violent, repulsive actions that have left a hole in our hearts and gaping wounds in our communities.”

Collier, 27, had been an MIT police officer since January 2012 and prior to that he was a civilian employee with the Somerville Police Department. Gov. Deval Patrick has signed legislation authorizing the City of Somerville to posthumously appoint Collier to the Somerville Police Department, which he was scheduled to join this summer.

The indictment stems from incidents that occurred in Middlesex County on April 18 and 19, 2013.

At approximately 10:20 p.m. on April 18, police received reports of shots fired on the MIT campus. At 10:30 p.m., officers discovered Collier shot in his vehicle in the area of Vassar and Main streets. According to authorities, the officer had sustained multiple gunshot wounds. He was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital and pronounced deceased.

Authorities launched an immediate investigation into the circumstances of the shooting.

The investigation determined that two males were allegedly involved in this shooting, Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

After unsuccessfully attempting to steal the officers’ weapon, the two suspects fled the scene and then carjacked a vehicle in Boston. With the vehicle’s owner hostage in the vehicle, the two suspects drove to various locations, including an ATM in Watertown. It is alleged that the defendant and his brother stole the victim’s ATM card and withdrew money from an ATM. The suspects then stopped in Cambridge for gas and the victim fled.

The defendant and his brother drove to Watertown, where police, using GPS, located the vehicle. A Watertown police officer spotted the vehicle in the area of Dexter and Laurel Streets in Watertown. As additional police arrived, it is alleged that the suspects began shooting at police, leading to an exchange of gunfire with police. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot and also hit by a vehicle driven by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He was transported to the hospital and later pronounced dead. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev fled the scene and was arrested by the FBI in Watertown following an extensive search.

An MBTA Transit Police officer was seriously injured during the shootout. That aspect of the case, including the circumstances surrounding the shooting in Watertown, remains under investigation.

These charges are allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The investigation into the incidents that occurred in Middlesex County is a collaborative effort involving multiple agencies including the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, the Massachusetts State Police, Cambridge Police, MIT Police, Watertown Police, Boston Police, MBTA Transit Police, the State Police Crime Lab, the FBI, and the US Attorney’s Office in Boston.

The prosecutor assigned to the case is Assistant District Attorney Adrienne Lynch, Chief of Homicide. The victim witness advocate is Helena Clarke.

By Katherine Landergan, Town Correspondent

The incoming classes at Harvard College and MIT seem to be waging a series of online pranks against one another.

First reported by The Huffington Post on Tuesday, these jokes included MIT students editing a website devoted to the Harvard class of 2017, and replacing students’ pictures with an image of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. A Reddit user posted a screengrab of the hack.

Another screenshot showed that MIT students also changed each Harvard students’ bios to phrases like, “I wish I had as much swag as the MIT kids.”

In response, the incoming Harvard students created a Google Doc announcing a “Declaration of War!”

"Whereas the Immature Prefrosh of MIT has committed unprovoked acts of war against the Harvard 2017 Website and the Members of the Harvard Class of 2017:

Therefore be it Resolved by that the state of war between the Harvard Class of 2017 and the Immature Prefrosh of MIT which has thus been thrust upon the Harvard class of 2017 is hereby formally declared; and the Harvard Class of 2017 is hereby ComMITted to utilize the entire strengths of its class to carry on war against the MIT Prefrosh."

They later created a “Terms of Surrender” Google Doc, in which the incoming Harvard students demanded that the MIT class of 2017 apologize, and comply to several terms. For example, Article V states that the “Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Class of 2017 provides Harvard University, Class of 2017 with a tribute of several varieties of cookies and cheesecake in sweet abundance.”

Katherine Landergan can be reached at klandergan@globe.com. For campus news updates, follow her on Twitter @klandergan.

Looking for more coverage of area colleges and universities? Go to our Your Campus pages.

A fledgling red-tailed hawk is preparing to make it's first flight from the nest atop Harvard's Maxwell Dworkin building. Photo by Brock Parker.

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent

From atop the Maxwell Dworkin building, higher than a Harvard College student’s SAT score, the last of three fledgling red-tailed hawks is preparing for its maiden flight.

Passersby below along Oxford Street in Cambridge can be seen craning their necks for a look up at the baby hawk, which has courage enough to step out of the nest atop a fourth floor ledge, but is not ready to fly, just yet.

Next door, at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, staff members can be seen crowding at the windows, holding up cameras and snapping pictures of the fledgling hawk before it takes off.

The fledgling’s siblings, two of them, took flight over the weekend for the first time, said Andy Provost, a 66-year-old wildlife photographer who’s been watching the birds for a couple of weeks.

But the other hawks are still nearby. One of the siblings, likely a female, has been hanging out in a tree nearby that hangs over the sidewalk along Oxford Street. Another family member, possibly the bird’s mother, prefers to perch atop the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and made a visit to the last fledgling this morning.

Provost said the mother is very good mother, and one day while she was away from the nest it began to rain heavily. Within seconds, Provost said the mother had returned to the nest and spread her wings and tail to give shelter to her chicks.

“It’s really heartwarming to see,” he said.

Don Claflin, a facilities manager at Harvard, said hawks had been nesting in a tree near Pierce Hall a few years ago before a hawk began building a nest next door on the Maxwell Dworkin building about two years ago.

At the time, Claflin said he got the idea to mount a camera on the building to watch the hawk’s progress building the nest and he brought in some information technology experts at the college to assist. They mounted a camera on the building beside the nest, and put the feed from the camera up online.

The video soon became a hit, Claflin said, with Harvard staff constantly watching the hawk’s activities.

“I think they spend more time watching these birds than they do doing their work,” he said.

Then one day about two years ago Claflin got a call that the hawk wasn’t there. Then Susan Moses, Deputy Director of the Center for Health Communication at the Harvard School of Public Health, heard about a hawk that had been hit by a car nearby, and had been saved by the Animal Rescue League of Boston. The hawk was taken to Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine in Grafton to heal, and when it was ready Moses brought the bird back to Harvard and released it.

Last year, Claflin said the bird did not nest at the Maxwell Dworkin building, but it returned to the nest this year and this spring laid eggs.

The camera caught most of the action, including the mother returning to the nests with squirrels and rats to feed the fledglings. Finally, the camera broke down on the day of Harvard’s commencement, Claflin said. A replacement camera has arrived, but Claflin said he’s been instructed that installing it right now may scare the remaining fledgling to jump off the roof before it is ready.

“I don’t want that on my conscience, then I’ll have everybody at Harvard blaming me for the death of the bird,” Claflin said.

But birdwatchers continue to keep a close eye on the fledglings and the other hawks flying around that part of the campus, though, Claflin said.

“Interest in the birds has really taken off,” he said.

Moses said she continues keeping a close eye on the hawks and their fledglings. She said that over the weekend after two of the fledglings left the nest for the first time, the third fledgling that had been left behind made a distressed sound as if it missed its siblings.

Moses said the mother then flew to the nest and seemed to comfort the one remaining fledgling. It’s the type of interaction that she thinks helps pique people’s interest in the birds.

“They really have individual personalities,” Moses said. “They communicate with each other. Nature is really fascinating.”

--Brock.globe@gmail.com

By Katherine Landergan, Town Correspondent

Two professors in Illinois have determined that a piece of Abraham Lincoln’s math homework, currently housed in the Harvard archives, is part of a larger arithmetic manuscript. According to archivists, this problem set is the earliest surviving Lincoln document.

“There is nothing that predates it,” said Leslie Morris, the curator of Modern Books and Manuscripts at the Harvard Houghton Library.

Morris said that the leaflet, which has been at Harvard since 1954, was originally part of a collection from Lincoln’s law partner.

“It has a lot of resonance for people,” she said. “Not only is this the earliest surviving document from one of the country’s most beloved presidents, it is a document that everyone can identify with.”

According to a joint statement released by Illinois State University and the Houghton Library, the leaflet at Harvard is the eleventh leaf in Lincoln’s arithmetic set. Lincoln completed the document while attending schools in Indiana between the years of 1820 and 1826, the statement said.

The problem sets included the following questions:

If the tuition of 3 boys for two quarters of a year be $40-20 cts how much will the tuition of 60 boys amount to for 4½ years?

If 4 men in 5 days eat 7 lb. of bread, how much will be sufficient for 16 men in 15 days?

If 100 dollars in one year gain 3½ dollars interest, what sum will gain $38.50 cents in one year and a quarter?

Nerida Ellerton and Ken Clements, the professors who figured out that the separate documents were part of a larger manuscript, said in the statement that Lincoln was a very good math student.

“The solutions to the mathematics problems in Lincoln's manuscript show that the young Abraham not only knew what he was doing, but also that he understood the mathematical principles he was applying," said Clements and Ellerton. "Almost all of his problem solutions were correct."

Katherine Landergan can be reached at klandergan@globe.com. For campus news updates, follow her on Twitter @klandergan.

Looking for more coverage of area colleges and universities? Go to our Your Campus pages.

By Katherine Landergan, Town Correspondent

Local colleges and universities are hiking tuition costs by an average of 3 to 4 percent for next year, with some school officials calling the increases among the lowest in recent history.

Suffolk University has announced it will increase undergraduate tuition prices by 3 percent for next year, making it the smallest increase in 36 years.

The president of Suffolk University, James McCarthy, said in a statement that rates for the 2013 to 2014 school year will be $31,592, up $920 from this year.

"The undergraduate increase is built upon a base Suffolk University tuition that remains among the lowest of comparable New England institutions," McCarthy said in the statement.

At MIT, tuition and fees will cost $43,498, compared to $42,050 for this year, for a 3.4 percent increase. Officials called the hike among the lowest in recent decades.

And at Boston University, prices are expected to rise 3.7 next year to $43,970. In a statement, university officials called the new tuition price “one of the lowest rates of increase among BU’s peer universities.”

Among other local schools:

- Emerson College will raise its tuition by 4.5 percent, from $33,568 this year to $35,072 next year.

- Boston College plans to hike prices by 4 percent, from $43,140 to $44,870.

- Northeastern University’s rates will break the $40K mark -- from $39,320 last year to $40,780 next year.

But the University of Massachusetts system is pushing for a major increase in funding from the state -- an additional $39 million -- which could keep tuition rates at a standstill.

The Globe reported in late May that elected student trustees from the University of Massachusetts system are calling on Senate officials to approve a $478 million funding proposal from Governor Deval Patrick. If the proposal passes, UMass officials have said that the university system could freeze tuition and fees for next year.

Some schools are saying that the new rates will be offset by financial aid budgets that are at a “historic high.”

MIT officials said that the undergraduate financial aid budget has risen to a record $97.6 million.

“MIT has more than tripled its spending on financial aid since 2000 - a rate of growth that far exceeds tuition and fee increases during that same period - as part of the Institute’s ongoing efforts to shield students and families from the impact of price increases,” the university said in the statement.

And Northeastern University has announced that it will invest the largest amount of financial aid in the school’s 115-year history, providing a total of $204 million in grant aid for next year.

But other schools will be giving out financial aid to less students. For example at Boston University, approximately 53 percent of students will receive grant aid, which is down from 57 percent for this past year.

Katherine Landergan can be reached at klandergan@globe.com. For campus news updates, follow her on Twitter @klandergan.

Looking for more coverage of area colleges and universities? Go to our Your Campus pages.

Oprah Winfrey energized the sea of Harvard graduates when she took to the podium Thursday afternoon to deliver the commencement address.

“Oh my goodness!” she exclaimed. “I’m at Harvard!”

Some 32,000 people were expected to attend the Morning Exercises, which started at at 9:45 a.m. and continued through the afternoon.

Watch her speech below:

By Katherine Landergan, Town Correspondent and Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and talk show host Oprah Winfrey received honorary degrees from Harvard University today, as thousands of graduates, family members, friends and celebrities gathered for commencement activities.

When it was Menino’s turn to receive his honorary doctor of laws, he beamed, but was also solemn. Harvard Provost Alan Garber told the crowd that Menino is the “boss of Boston,” who has a passion for the people he serves.”

“He is known near and far as one of the most effective, dedicated, and deservedly popular servants to hold public office,” Garber said.

Garber said that during his time as mayor, Menino has invested his whole being into the city.

“He treats his constituents like family,” Garber said, adding that, “he has been a true friend of higher education and research.”

Winfrey clasped her hands as she stood to receive her honorary doctor of laws degree.

Harvard President Drew Faust delivered brief remarks as she conferred the degree upon Winfrey.

“Opening books, opening doors, opening minds to life’s possibilities, a bountiful altruist and a woman of valor whose audiences owe her a standing O,” she said of Winfrey.

Winfrey, in a personal, at times poignant set of remarks, referred to her new network, and its less than stellar reviews, as she urged graduates to see setbacks as opportunities.

“Remember this. There is no such thing as failure,” she said to the large crowd fanned across Harvard Yard. “Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.”

On the steamy spring day, Winfrey energized the crowd when she took the stage, her excitement over speaking at the prestigious college on clear display.

“Oh my goodness!” she exclaimed. “I’m at Harvard!”

Some 32,000 people were expected to attend what are known as the Morning Exercises, which kicked off at 9:45 a.m. and continued through the day.

Harvard College graduate Melissa Niu of State College, Penn., said the commencement was a culmination of years of hard work.

"As much as it is an end, it really is a commencement," said Niu, 21, who studied computer science. "It's a new beginning for us, to use our 16 years of education in the real world."

As he stood just outside the campus gates, Edward Becker, 25, said that he has been impressed by the diversity of the student body, and how the Harvard community truly wants to better society.

"The students at Harvard are extremely motivated to do good," said Becker, who pursued his master's in architecture at the graduate school of design.

Sydney Green, 22, said that the past few days have been surreal.

"When I got the diploma, I couldn't believe it," she said with a smile. "This is a Harvard degree, with my name on it."

A New York police sergeant Jon Murad, one of the speakers this morning, urged the class of 2013 to use their newly conferred degrees to better society.

Murad said he is likely one of the few municipal cops in the US with two Harvard degrees, which is “not a boast, it is a lament.’’

“There is as much stature in our being social workers and teachers, soldiers and preachers, nurses and, yes, even cops, as being president and poets laureate,’’ said Murad, who got his Harvard undergraduate degree in 1995 and graduated from Harvard's Kennedy School today.

“The world needs people like you in these roles,’’ he added. “Success doesn’t mean rising to the top. It means changing the world. And here’s the secret: everyone changes the world. Everything ripples. It’s how we do it that counts.’’

During this morning’s ceremony, graduates wore red robes as the degrees were conferred, in a mix of solemnity and light-hearted moments. Some educators got a hug from Winfrey. An A Capella group sang a rendition of “This Little Light of Mine.’’

After the morning event luncheons and diploma-awarding ceremonies took place at the undergraduate houses, Graduate and Professional Schools.

In the afternoon, Harvard’s president and Winfrey delivered their speeches.

“Oprah’s journey from her grandmother’s Mississippi farm to becoming one of the world’s most admired women is one of the great American success stories,” Faust said in a statement posted on the Harvard Gazette website in March. “She has used her extraordinary influence and reach as a force for good in the world, with a constant focus on the importance of educational opportunity and the virtues of serving others.”

Winfrey’s nationally syndicated talk show ran for more than 20 years, reaching an audience of over 40 million people a week in the United States as well as viewers from 150 countries, according to the Gazette. The Gazette also said that Oprah's book club has encouraged reading worldwide and featured many unknown authors.

Before Menino received his degree, the university issued a statement praising his leadership.

“As Boston’s longest-serving mayor, Thomas M. Menino has shepherded the cradle of the American Revolution into the 21st century. In wedding major development projects to a focus on neighborhood renewal, Menino earned overwhelming popular support for his 20-year stewardship of what he often calls ‘the greatest city on Earth,’ ” the university stated

Looking for more coverage of area colleges and universities? Go to our Your Campus pages.